My morning Metro ride was sent trying to figure out how to comment on the Hollywood storyline that has sprung up about this game. How Michigan State has been turned into a plucky underdog as a two seed, how the entire city of Detroit and the national economy all hang on Michigan State getting more balls through a hoop than North Carolina. How to write about all of this without coming across as a callous ass. Happily, Gregg Doyel has gone and written it for me:
So if you want to believe in the fairy tale of this Michigan State basketball team, by all means, believe to your little heart's content. Get good and gooey. But understand that you are disassociating yourself from reality. That you are lying to yourself, or letting the media lie to you. Or both.
Because Michigan State is not a team of destiny.
Michigan State is not easing Detroit's pain.
And Michigan State is not beating North Carolina.
Just two things to add, here. One, UNC is no stranger to playing the overdog, crushing the plucky little team that could. Just ask the Wolfpack about their multiple runs to the ACC finals from Thursdays, that l ended with a high-seeded UNC finishing off their season. It's an unfortunate position to be in from a storyline's sake, but Carolina is not the villian trying to tear down the Goonies' houses. It's just basketball.
Second, Roy Williams:
“If you would tell me that if Michigan State wins, it’s going to satisfy the nation’s economy, then I’d say, Hell, let’s stay poor for a little while longer.”
Some days, you just have to play the heavy.